Bolante told: Do a Garci, return to RP

Senate President Franklin Drilon urged former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante yesterday "to do a Garcillano" and return to Manila to face a congressional inquiry into the P728-million fertilizer fund controversy.

"Ang mensahe ko po kay Joc-Joc, mag-Garcillano, bumalik na kayo dito at sabihin kung ano ang nangyari (My message to Joc-Joc is to do a Garcillano, return to the country and tell us what happened). This is no trial by publicity. We do not engage in a trial. What we are doing is inquiring into the disposition of these huge amounts of money," Drilon declared.

Drilon’s advice came after reports that former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano was set to surface after months of eluding a Senate investigation into alleged poll fraud last year that supposedly favored President Arroyo.

Garcillano and his wife Grace reportedly returned to the Philippines from an undisclosed country last week and she said her husband is willing to talk openly about the allegations, ABS-CBN News Channel reported last Tuesday, citing an interview with the former election official’s wife.

Bolante has yet to appear before the Senate despite repeated summons. However, his lawyer Antonio Zulueta said Bolante will be back in the country before the holidays, presumably four or five days before Christmas.

Zulueta, who represented Bolante in yesterday’s hearings, promised senators they will be informed once his client has arrived.

A witness meanwhile has directly linked Bolante to a fertilizer supplier involved in the alleged scam. But the testimony of Jose Barredo Jr. was withheld after the Senate committee on agriculture and food, which is conducting the inquiry, suspended its hearings yesterday for the rest of the year.

During the same hearing, town mayor Antonio Rivera of Dolores, Eastern Samar debunked Salas’ statements that Rep. Marcelino Libanan could have benefited from the alleged ghost delivery.

Rivera, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Eastern Samar chapter, said he had been informed by Libanan’s office that his town was identified as a recipient of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program of the Department of Agriculture.

Rivera also sought to destroy the credibility of Salas, whom he accused of engaging in partisan politics by making false statements against Libanan.

"It is well-known and is of public knowledge in the province that Salas was sacked as acting provincial treasurer of the province in 2001 due to poor performance," Rivera said.

Vilma Bormate, provincial general services officer, failed to attend the hearing but submitted her affidavit to the committee. Bormate affirmed that she received a copy of the purchase request from the

Office of the Governor for the purchase of 3,332 sacks of fertilizer amounting to P5 million.

The Senate inquiry into the P728-million fertilizer scam became a battle for integrity between local officials of Eastern Samar who contradicted each other over the delivery of some 3,000 sacks of fertilizer prior to the 2004 elections.

It was Bolante who requested the release of the funds on Feb. 2, 2004. The next day, Bolante reportedly received a P728-million release from Malacañang.

In the Senate hearing last Nov. 17, provincial agriculturist Jesus Agda disputed the testimony of assistant provincial treasurer Antonio Salas that not a single sack of fertilizer had been delivered to the province.

"The… farm inputs were not yet turned over to my office at that time yet when I issued that said certification on June 7, 2004 for the precise reason that my office was not the requisitioner of the farm inputs," Agda said.

It was the Provincial General Services, not the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, that was responsible for the delivery, Agda told the Senate yesterday.

Agda said he started looking into the fertilizer delivery sometime in July 2004 after the new set of elective provincial officials were sworn into office. The instruction was to verify the delivery of the 3,333 sacks of farming materials amounting to about P5 million.

Drilon was not persuaded by Agda, whom he described as having issued conflicting statements. Agda said he personally inspected the delivery, but upon questioning, he stated that he merely tasked his staff members to do the inventory.